Regardless of your body type or dietary restrictions there are 5 Basic habits that will help every person succeed in their nutrition. These are a great foundation for Tier 1 clients to start with. Tier 2 & 3 might have modifications based on their goals and needs.

1) Eat Slowly

• Im sure the first thought in your head is “Yes dad”, but seriously there are benefits to this. Let me explain before you move to the next step. This allows you to listen to the hunger and appetite cues and to stop at 80% full. This is not about what, but HOW you eat. The satiety mechanism takes about 20 minutes to kick in (gut to brain and back to gut). By eating too quickly we do not allow our body and brain to connect which can allow for overeating.
• Try to hit between 15-20 minutes per meal. If this is way too big of a goal at first try to do little things such as sit down instead of stand up, turn off the TV, smaller bites, have a chat with your those at your table or put down the fork.
• Other benefits: improved digestion, better performance exercise/workouts, more time to enjoy social life, better sleep if eating before bed.

2) Eat Protein with Each Meal

•  Most of my clients struggle with getting in enough protein throughout their day.
• Maybe your out to eat and do not have a scale with you (I would be concerned if you brought one) here is a general guide to help you determine what to eat. A portion size of protein is visually the size of the palm of your hand, between 20 -30 g. Women try to eat roughly one portion per meal and men should try to eat 2 portions per meal.

3) Try to split your vegetables up into each meal

• Along with the macronutrients I go about, there are crucial micronutrients and phytochemcials (plant chemicals) that are just as important. These phytochecmicals provide such benefits as cancer-fighting, free-radical destroying, acid neutralizing & micro nutrient packed foods.
• Try to include one-two servings of fruit or veggies per meal.
• Serving size = 1 medium size fruit, 1/2 cup raw chopped fruit or veggies and 1 cup of raw leafy veggies
• Try to work up to 10 servings per day. Dont try to rush it if its seems overwhelming. Add one serving at a time while slowly building up to your goal.

4) For fat loss,try to eat the majority of your other carbs Post workout

• One way to mentally approach this is to think of it as you want to earn the higher carbs.
• Think in terms of AT (Anytime) & PW (Post workout) carbs. Focus on mostly unprocessed options & save them for PW.
• While this can be counter productive in some people in seeming to be restrictive, instead of being a “cant” its when the body will use them better.
• This also does not constitute as low carbohydrate instead it might be lower carb compared to what you are used to eating. Try to view the approach as a controlled carb meal plan.

5) Consume Healthy Fats Daily

While you are focusing on the total fat amount, you want to make sure to get in a balance of saturated, mono saturated & polyunsaturated. I would suggest trying to get in 1/3 of each category into your total daily fats. This allows for the             optimization of your health, body composition and performance.

• Saturated: Animal Fats (eggs, dairy, meats, butter, cheeses, etc), Coconut Oil, Palm Oil
• Monounsaturated: Macadamia Nuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, olives, olive oil, avocados
• Polyunsaturated: Brazil Nuts, Fish Oil, hemp Seeds, algae oils, safflower oil, sunflower seeds, peanuts, canola oil, soy nuts, walnuts, flax seeds, flax oil, chia seeds

This may seem overwhelming at first I will show you how I go about doing it.

• First I add in the fat from chicken, turkey, ground beef …..
• Second Add in Olive oil, avocados or almonds
• Third I add seeds or fish oil supplements to a clients food list